 Devlin Kostal is a blue belt under Daniel Thomas at Zeus BJJ in Monterey, CA. A week after receiving his blue belt he won a bronze medal at the 2009 US Open and has racked up 3 gold medals as a white belt, most notably one at the 2009 Mundials. He is a welcome addition to the writing staff at Monkey Grip World. You can read more of Dev's experiences, insights, and passions on brazilian jiu jitsu at Dev's blog.
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Written by Devlin Kostal
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 Ihave to be honest – I wasn’t completely aware of the significance of Francisco Mansor in the whole history of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu until I started really getting into it. “Mansor” just isn’t a name that’s bandied around the casual MMA fans, like “Gracie” or even “Machado” (largely due to Eddie Bravo’s friendship with Joe Rogan). Mansor appeals largely to the BJJ purists, though. After starting training under Helio Gracie at age 17, he later became a policeman in Rio De Janeiro, eventually becoming Chief of Police for the entire city, a job he held for 35 years. During that time, he continued to train under the Master. Mansor developed a relationship with the Tijuca Tennis Club, the historic site where some of the first modern BJJ tournaments were held.
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